Encouraging Parental Reading for High-Risk Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Infants.

Objective: To assess whether a citywide structured book-sharing program (NICU Bookworms) designed to promote reading to infants while admitted in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) would increase parental reading behaviors (≥3-4 days/week) in the NICU and after discharge home, including high-risk parents who do not themselves enjoy reading.

Study Design: The NICU Bookworms program comprised staff training, parent education, and building a literacy-rich environment. In this quasi-experimental intervention study, parents of medically high-risk NICU graduates <6 months of age were administered a questionnaire at their first NICU follow-up clinic visit.